Chads84

Ive heard alot about modulars and would like to know what is the difference between a modular and a "non-modular" is? any Insight would help

03BottleFedGT

a modular motor is an over head cam motor, 4.6 and the 5.4. a 5.0 is a pushrod overhead valve motor.

Chads84

Thanks a lot! its been botherin me haha so the difference is the 5.0 has valves and the modulars have cams?...if thats right?

.boB

Everything is differant. They're completly differant designs, and nothing interchanges. I think the only similarity is that they both burn gasoline.

Chads84

I would just like to know the differences in detail man thats how i learn stuff

cliffyk

They both have valves and cam(s)--the difference is that in the overhead valve 302 (5.0) there's only one camshaft located in the center of the block and the valves are opened by lifters that ride on the cam lobes, and pushrods that cause rocker arms in the head to pivot and open the valves.



On the overhead cam engines there are one or two camshafts located on top of the cylinder head. Cam followers ride on the camshaft and open the valves directly, rather then through pushrods.



On our cars the cam followers are pivoted levers with a 1.8:1 ratio. The follower is supported on one end by a hydraulic lash adjuster (HLA) pivot point, a roller in the middle of the follower rides on the cam, and the other end of the follower operates the valve.


In this photo the HLA is in the foreground:


Here's a great animation of the Ford GT engine's operation...

Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow...

Chads84

Wow thanks man! yeah im tryin to learn alot about the ratios to thats just as important

texas_stang02

the term "modular" doesn't really describe the engine design itself, i think it was originally used to describe the assembly line technology used to put the motors together and the name just sort of stuck. Ford can use the same assembly line to assemble several different motors.

the "modular" engines are quite a bit different than the old pushrod 5.0's but as cliffyk described above, a big difference is the overhead cams on the modular compared to the single cam in the block of the 5.0. the modular engines eliminated the pushrods and lifters in the valvetrain, replacing them with cam followers and lash adjusters.

Mach1man

You're exactly right on the money! The term "modular" was originally a term to describe the assembly line process, not the engine itself. Back in the day, Ford would have had to have completely different engine assembly lines to assemble a 302 and a 351 and a 429.

I think what gave rise to the term being associated with the engines, is that one block casting can support parts from different versions of the same engine family. An example would be a 4.6L block being able to accept either 2V SOHC heads, or 4V DOHC heads, two totally different head configurations able to be interchangable on a single block.